It’s easy to forget!
The real issue is forgetfulness and the tendency to think oneself immortal. This is especially pronounced in youth. There's a feeling in youth that death is something that happens only to others; it's not yet a reality. The young mind knows, logically, that one day it's going to die, but it believes that it's going to happen somewhere in the distant future. "Perhaps at one hundred years of age it may happen.” This delusion is strengthened by the body's ability to recuperate at an accelerated rate while young. Injuries occur but heal without leaving a trace; at the most a scar is left. But for those who are trying to awaken death is a pressing issue, because life is short, and enlightenment rarely happens suddenly.
One of the most significant meditations---if not the most significant---is that of death: of a loved one or of oneself.
In many cultures the accepting of one's death marks the end of innocence and marks the transition from childhood into adulthood. A true encounter with death has power to elevate the mind to the understanding of Binah. Knowledge of death marks the first step toward the attainment of emotional maturity, whereas understanding death marks the attainment of spiritual maturity.
To know that death is the only certainty in life is one thing, but to go into the reality of it before it happens is quite another. One can know that death is inevitable and remain just as ignorant as before. But to make of it a constant contemplation, to die every moment to what one has experienced. To die as an ego, as a self, as a censor, as a Christian, Hindu, or Jew, makes it nigh impossible not to encounter death as such. It's easy to remain the same fearful, contracted, hypocritical person when there's some beautiful afterlife waiting for you. Oh sure, there's always the threat of hell; but no one ever really thinks themselves that immoral. Besides, they can always ask God for forgiveness and, according to the contract, he has to forgive them!
When one admits complete ignorance on the subject of what happens when we die, the situation becomes quite different. Then there’s no time to waste! Suddenly, all that was meant to come out of you in this lifetime is provoked into manifestation. Hindrances diminish. For example, what would happen to your grudges should you find out today that you have but one week to live? What would be your complaints then? They may be there even then! But whatever the case, one thing is certain: the truth of who you are will be revealed at the hour of your death.
Have you ever had the honor of witnessing someone's death, to be at their bedside in their final hours? In my own life I've known death intimately. I've seen the way people behave in Her presence. I've looked into the eyes of a dying man. There's a profound difference in the way a loved one behaves in the presence of death and the way someone who thinks they're a loved one behaves in such an event. You can tell immediately who the lovers are and who are the acquaintances. Love has so much courage! Even in the face of death love is courageous. There's sadness, certainly, but there’s rarely any fear. And if there is fear, love will push it aside for the comfort of the beloved. The others will avert their gaze; they'll want to escape.
I could feel the profound silence of my grandfather's death, despite his obvious suffering and the noise of the hospital. As he was dying I was looking deep into his eyes, feeling his energy before he passed. It was a bodiless energy. His hand was cold and lifeless, and I wondered if he could even feel mine. I could see my grandmother sitting across from me, holding his other hand. We would lock eyes for some time, sharing a silent understanding, and then she'd just smile and look away. They loved each other very much, my grandparents. Fifty-nine years of marriage speaks volumes without uttering a single word, and although my grandfather was unable to speak at the time of his death, the love between those two old people spoke louder than any church choir could ever sing.
So the essence of Death is sudden and irrevocable change…
Each character in the Major Arcana is subject to the law of change. The amniotic fluid deep within the Orphic Egg goes on changing colors and temperature while The Fool reposes quietly at its center. He wears each "face-card" like so many clothes and discards them as circumstances change, or until they're ripped away from him.
This Law of Change---called by Hermetic magician The Formula of I.A.O.---is simply the ongoing cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Without going into its full symbolism, I.A.O. gives us the initials of three key-figures from the Egyptian pantheon: Isis (Egyptian mother goddess), Apophis (Egyptian serpent-god of the underworld), and Osiris (Egyptian god of the marginal state between the Gate of Life and the Gate of Death).
We see Isis in her role as Mother goddess in the figure of The Empress; her role as Spiritual Mother in The Priestess; and as the "Star of the Sea" in The Star. Notice the overlap of the Venus and Isis archetypes. This is why, although The Empress represents Mother Earth, she's also associated with Venus, Goddess of Love.
Apophis is the god we're encountering in Death. He overlaps considerably with the god Osiris, however. He's Apophis in the sense of destroyer, and Osiris in the sense of that which is destroyed and resurrected. Indeed, we do see the Apophis Serpent in the card, and he's wearing the Osiris Helmet: the Atef.
The tendency to superimpose seemingly unrelated elements is an occult hallmark, and typically points to something important. The introduction of disparity into anything in Tarot suggests the presence of something which transcends the disparity itself. Throughout the Major Arcana, the threat of annihilation is present on many levels, just as it is in our everyday existence. In some cards this annihilation isn't such a dreadful thing. In fact, little thought is given to it. For example, the sleep and waking cycle. Every night we die in sleep (The Moon) and are resurrected in the morning (The Sun), and we pay very little attention to this essential process in our lives, even though there's nothing preventing us from never waking up again! Still, there are times in our lives--and corresponding cards in Tarot--when we may even welcome such annihilation: love, for instance (The Lovers); sexual passion (Lust, The Tower); spiritual enlightenment (The Magus, The Hierophant, The Universe.), just to name a few.
There are also times when annihilation may present a problem. We may have trouble letting go. The Emperor is just one example of someone who may have trouble relinquishing his status and the pleasures derived from it, and yet he also possesses the necessary ardor to manifest his vision and his dreams; to rebuild from out of that which has been destroyed. In him is the paradox between the Will to Live and the Will to Die. The joy of having created something and the pain of seeing it destroyed become reconciled in the joy of creating itself.
To die blissfully one must live blissfully...
In love, also, we may have trouble letting go. Such a beautiful thing happens rarely between two people and, if they're a little wise, they can feel the frailty of such a thing against the fierce movement of time, even while enjoying the closeness of eternity that always seems to coincide with the presence of love itself. At the same time, however, love is itself a death. In love, one dies into the other, dies as an ego (Horus-Pharaoh-ego), and is resurrected as a presence. He's reborn as Osiris---Husband/brother of Isis (Goddess of life and, by disposition, of love also.) In love Osiris too shall die, and Isis will steal his semen as he journeys into the underworld (she actually does this in Egyptian myth), and he'll be reborn as Horus once more. Only this time he'll be a god, not an animal. Isis/love has become the Orphic Egg, the loop of the Ankh. How long shall this kingdom stand? Only love can divine it. The chick has no power over the hatching of its own egg any more than the child can know the hour of her birth.
The Emperor is the lower octave of Death. The Emperor is attributed to the path of Tzaddi in the present deck, and Tzaddi means "fishhook." Death is attributed to the path of Nun, and Nun means "fish." The path of Nun creates the Tiphareth/Netzach axis on the Tree of Life. Tiphareth is the sphere of the Sun, and Netzach is the sphere of Venus. So we have a connection between the sphere of Life and the sphere of Love. Now Tiphareth, translated from the Hebrew, means "Beauty."
Netzach, translated, means "Victory." This victory of love over death is known in Western occult society as The Vision of Beauty Triumphant: the power of beauty to motivate our actions beyond ourselves. The card which dominates the path of Tzaddi in most decks is The Star and represents, among other things, the enticing call of beauty, which is divinity speaking in the lower Worlds. The "fish" getting snagged on the end of beauty's hook is none other than love itself, pulled from the dark waters of the duality. What happens after this fish is caught, is the topic of our next discussion.
Art:
The Daughter of the Reconcilers
The Bringer forth of Life
Trump #14
Zodiacal Trump of Sagittarius
Jupiter Rules—Dragon's Tail Exalted
Path: #25 (from Tiphareth to Yesod)
Letter: Samekh (prop/foundation) (numerical value: 60) [the shape of this letter also resembles the Serpent consuming its own tail—the Ouroboros Serpent]
Helpful Quotes: (Parenthesis mine)
"Pour thine all freely from the Vase in thy right hand, and lose no drop! Hath not thy left hand a vase? Transmute all wholly into the Image of thy Will, bringing each to its token of Perfection! Dissolve the Pearl in the Wine-cup: drink, and make manifest the Virtue of that Pearl!"
-Aleister Crowley
"In the archeological journey to the Self, the personal realm's exclusive reign is coming to an end, starting to be peeled off a radiant Spirit, and that universal radiance begins increasingly to shine through, rendering the self more and more transparent."
-Ken Wilber
"So we are told simply to realize mutual response and explore mutual response, then turn around and enter the world. People with the original face should enact and fully investigate without neglecting a single fragment."
-Hongzhi Zhengjue
Contemplation
It's impossible to appreciate this trump fully without a good understanding of The Lovers card. For this reason, I highly recommend you revisit and review The Lovers before beginning this essay. This will give you a fuller understanding of Art. After all, the present card is just one half of the two-part alchemical formula, called Solve et Coagula, the other half of that formula being The Lovers.
It's hard to find a negative side to Art without placing the blame on The Lovers or some other card. After all, Art operates from a position of an already integrated Shadow. We can, for example, blame the bipartisan attitude of The Lovers; the delusional thinking of The Priestess; the lassitude of The Hanged Man; and perhaps even the spiritual pride of The Hierophant.
It's hard to blame Art for any shortcomings as the figure in the card is giving his/her full attention to the Work. Exactly what this Work is we touched upon briefly in our discussion of The Fool and the Taoist concept of the Holy Embryo. Briefly, the Chinese Taoists believe that by exchanging Fire and Water elements within the bodymind one can control the Yang and Yin balance therein. The Chinese refer to this Fire/Water balance as “Kan (water)/Li (fire) adjustment. Sometimes this may be a simple matter of applying ice to bring down a high fever. But in the religious and martial schools of Taoism, Kan-Li adjustment results in the creation of an Etheric energy (Embryo) capable of increasing muscular power and even spiritual enlightenment. Readers interested in a full discussion of this topic are urged to read the book, “Qigong: The Secret of Youth”, by Dr. Yang Jwing Ming (YMAA).
On another level of interpretation, Art portrays the power of creativity, and also simplicity. These qualities come naturally for some people. More commonly, though, simplicity is a power that must be cultivated and given time and space to grow. The power to which I'm referring finds the sacred in the secular, is never bored, and turns each and every act into a thing of beauty. This can be anything from washing the dishes, making or listening to a piece of music, dancing, walking…anything. The only requirement is a consciousness capable of perceiving beauty in the little things, even in sorrow or death. This quality can be cultivated, certainly, but you can't superimpose it over a brutish mind. In this Contemplation, we'll be discussing how to come upon this flower called Beauty.
In the garden of spiritual growth, thoughts often function like weeds. These weeds grow from the same source as the flower of beauty, but they often grow at the expense of that flower. When the mind is lost in aimless thought precious energy is wasted. When the body's tired, abused and unhealthy, the mind will be in a corresponding state of disease. Body and mind aren't two different things, they're one. When the body suffers the mind suffers also, for they’re part of the same soil. It's therefore necessary to have order within the bodymind. If there's no health and order, you can't hope to find this flower and release its perfume. In the card, the bees located on the figure’s green dress symbolize this order. This central figure is a hermaphroditic merging of The Emperor and The Empress, or The Lovers conjoined. As you can see, in the Art card, every symbol located in The Lovers card have here exchanged their essences. This balance of Yang and Yin, activity and passivity, aggressive striving and receptive understanding, create the conditions for the flower of beauty and health to grow.
To have beauty flow into your actions there must first be a state of health. Without health there’s no energy, and there can be no delight without energy.
I'd like to make it clear:
Health isn't necessarily dependent upon physicality!
Physical wholeness is certainly a bonus, but it's not the final word on health. By "health" I mean fulfillment. In fact, it's often those who suffer most that find depth and meaning in life, not the other way around. It's while at the peak of physical health that people find the energy to complain about the meaninglessness of it all! To put it bluntly, there's health and then there’s Health, with a capital "H". To be endowed with the former is a wonderful starting point, but to find the latter often requires a certain amount of conscious suffering.
When this card comes up in a reading, ask yourself if there's creative energy in your life. From where is energy leaking? Is it coming from worry? Is it because of ill physical health, sexual excess, or depression? Remember that the true significance behind all religious precepts is the maintaining of one's spiritual garden. How to be a whole, healthy, and evolving human being. It's in the willful attempt to avoid developmental arrest that you’ll find the highest message of the fourteenth trump.
So the first question we need to ask ourselves is:
From where is energy leaking? It's leaking from everywhere, isn't it? And why is it leaking? It's leaking because of conflict. Conflict is a spiritual infection. Have you ever heard the Nike slogan? The slogan reads, "Just do it!" The Art card is all about that! You see, a mind that perceives a need and acts immediately doesn't get lost in meaningless debates. The mind of integrated action has no conflict. Not that obstacles never arrive. They do! But the person portrayed by Art perceives a need and acts appropriately; not blindly, but appropriately. Even in situations where there's a need but nothing can be done the integrated person acts appropriately. If nothing can be done, then the integrated person will wait until a time when something can be done.
The integrated person will wait for the opportunity to act but will not obsess; obsession is a waste of energy. If you obsess too much about a problem, then you'll never have enough energy to solve it. If a person is to act with integrity, she must first perceive every nuance of the situation, which raises the question:
With what faculty of mind should one measure a creative problem?
Pure undistracted awareness! It's this quality that informs us when we're sick, tired, happy, when we've had too much to eat or drink. Deepen this quality, listen to it when it speaks. With the deepening of sensitivity comes the unfolding of the Rose and Cross, each petal opening to a new surprise and a new delight. If you can see an imbalance totally then you can correct it. The arising of the witness-plus-intelligent-action is the dissolution of conflict. We recognized and dissolved conflict in The Lovers; in Art, we creatively employ the energ
y released. In The Lovers we learned to love what we hate and hate what we love, in short, we learned to play our opposites. Here, in Art, we'll apply our integrity to each and every facet of our lives.
To be objective about oneself is a wonderful virtue to have, and to have the capacity to perpetually renew such objectivity is invaluable. This may be what Crowley was referring to in when he wrote:
"Pour thine all freely from the vase in thy right hand, and lose no drop! Hath not thy left hand a vase?"
Crowley continues:
"Transmute all wholly into the Image of thy Will, bringing each to its token of perfection."
Remember what we've learned about the transmutation of lower drives into higher spheres of awareness? Love is lust absorbed; compassion is anger absorbed---a mystery pertaining to the Holy Graal. This mystery of redemption is, in Kabbalah, described as a wedding between the Vau (Prince) and Heh below the Supernal Triad (Princess). Tiphareth weds Yesod/Malkuth: the Prince (Ruach/ego) must "marry" the Princess (Nephesh/Shadow), and "manifest her Virtue" by placing her on the throne of the Queen (Neschamah/Binah/Heh-above the Supernal Triad). This dissolution of the ego, and the resulting transformation of the conditioned mind to renewed awareness (The Universe), attracts the attention of the King (Chokmah/wisdom), which is the universal pulse of existence---how it "links up" with the Ego---, leading to Cosmic Consciousness. So the "token" of the perfection of "thy Will" is the surrendering of that will to the Will of the whole.
Predicting The Present Page 20
